In Germany, hiring costs for filling a vacancy are substantial, ranging on average from 7 to 14 weeks of wage payments. Moreover, the structure of hiring costs is convex, implying that hiring additional workers in a given period becomes increasingly expensive. Labor market institutions also affect hiring costs. While hiring costs in firms with collective bargaining coverage do not significantly differ from other firms, we find that worker representation at the firm level increases hiring costs by more than 30%. The results are also relevant for recent policies aimed at reducing unemployment. In Germany, short-time work (Kurzarbeit) is a widely used policy instrument for preventing firms from firing workers, enabling a firm to employ workers at reduced working hours. Under this program, the government covers part of the wage bill, thereby providing financial incentives for a firm not to lay off employees during a recession. Thus while our findings help to explain why a firm has its own incentives to hoard labor, the results also help to quantify possible benefits of short-time work policies (i.e., saved resources on future hiring costs).

Trainee pay is central to the economics of work-based training. The pay of metalworking apprentices is high in Britain, middling in Germany, and low in Switzerland, despite the similarity of training programmes in the three countries. This paper analyses these differences in trainee pay using fieldwork evidence and survey data. A range of potential determinants is identified, drawing on both economic and institutionalist theories. Human capital theory focuses on differences in pay in markets for unskilled and skilled labour. Several institutional attributes – including collective bargaining, employer co-ordination, upper-secondary education, and modes of public subsidy – are seen to influence apprentice pay, operating through supply, demand and price setting in markets for training places. Institutional support for apprenticeship training appears to involve important complementarities in both Germany and Switzerland, by contrast to a less coherent and more market-driven approach in Britain.

IRLE-Sponsored Research Cited in President Obama’s State of the Union Speech

President Obama identified an increase in the federal minimum wage as a priority for his administration. He cited research conducted by IRLE Director and Professor of Economics Michael Reich and his co-authors, Arindrajit Dube (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and T. William Lester (University of Stockholm).

Workers’ Views of the Impact of Trade on Jobs
Clair Brown, Julia Lane, and Timothy Sturgeon

Abstract:
This paper uses new data to examine how workers’ perceptions of the impact of trade on jobs like theirs are related to economic variables representing their career paths, job characteristics, and local labor market conditions. We find that only 17% of workers think trade creates jobs. And even fewer workers (4% to 7%) in any industry think trade has created better jobs. Interestingly, given prior literature, we find that workers’ perceptions do not reflect their job characteristics or the movability of their jobs. Their perceptions of trade impact primarily reflect local labor market conditions (hiring and separation rates) and education. The determinants of workers’ perceptions of trade present a different pattern compared to their perceptions of job security.

Abstract:
This study draws on employment relations and management theory, claiming that certain innovative employment practices and work structures pave the way for organizational innovation, namely investments in information technology (IT). It then finds support for the theory in a cross-section of UK workplaces. The findings suggest that firms slow to adopt IT realize that their conventional employment model hinders their ability to make optimal use of new technologies. Therefore, the paper advances the literature beyond studies of unionization’s impact on business investment to a broader set of issues on the employment relations features that make organizations ripe for innovation.

The Effect of Time Use in Explaining Male-Female Productivity Differences among Economists
Colleen Flaherty Manchester And Debra Barbezat

Abstract:
This paper examines the opportunity cost of non-research responsibilities on research output. Using a sample of early career faculty members who received their Ph.D. in economics, we consider the effect of two dimensions of time use on research output: 1) time allocation, or how time is divided between research and other duties; and 2) time concentration, or how research time is distributed during the academic year relative to summer months. This second dimension has not been used in prior studies on research productivity; however, the inherent delays in the publication process as well as start-up costs may imply that concentrating research time exclusively in the summer months reduces research output. We find that both dimensions of time use are significant predictors of peer-reviewed publications and that time concentration is a significant predictor of submissions. We find gender differences in both dimensions of time use, which are attributable to gender differences in employment at research institutions and on-going childcare responsibilities.

Abstract:
The Israeli IR system experienced a significant transformation since 1995, with the abolishment of the 'Ghent system'. On the basis of survey from 2006, it is found that union membership declined from 80% in 1981 to 34% in 2006, and is still in decline; coverage dropped from about 80% to 56% and remains stable. The article explains the significance of this gap, describes the new hybrid that evolved, and demonstrates its implications for other countries.

Collective and Individual Conflicts in the Workplace: Evidence from France
Jeremy Tanguy

Abstract:
This article investigates whether collective disputes and individual disputes are sub-stitutes in French workplaces. Using a nationally representative dataset, this article focuses on two prominent and distinct individual disputes in France, i.e. employee applications to Employment Tribunals and employer disciplinary action, and considers alternately strikes and non-strike disputes at the collective level. Our results suggest that collective disputes, with or without a strike, are substitutes only for Employment Tribunal claims, due to a significant negative relationship between them. In contrast, collective disputes are found to heighten disciplinary action in French workplaces.

Abstract:
Information disclosure requirements significantly increased in French listed companies in the early 2000s, converging toward the U.S./U.K. stock market standards. We investigate the consequences of this process regarding worker information: does more information for shareholders mean more information for workers? Our empirical analysis takes advantage of a French establishment survey that generates linked ‘employer-employee’ data at two points in time, 1998 and 2004. Our results show that worker information has improved in listed companies as an externality of the financialization process. We find however that this extra information is only partially correlated with greater employee satisfaction.

Volume 52, Special Issue, January 2013

Employee Representation in Non-Union Firms: An Overview
Paul J. Gollan and David Lewin

Abstract:
Non-union direct voice has replaced union representative voice as the primary avenue for employee voice in the British private sector. This paper explains this development by providing a framework for examining the relationship between employee voice and workplace outcomes. Voice is associated with lower voluntary turnover, especially in the case of union voice. However, union voice is also associated with greater workplace conflict. We argue changes in voice in Britain are not best understood using a simple union/non-union dichotomy. Union effects on workplace outcomes and the incidence of HRM hinge on whether it co-exists at the workplace with non-union voice in what we term a ‘dual’ system. In the first part of the 21st Century these dual voice systems were performing at least as well as non-union only regimes, suggesting that the rise of non-union regimes is attributable to something other than clear comparative performance advantages over other forms of voice.

Individual Voice in Employment Relationships: A Comparison under Different Collective Voice Regimes
David Marsden

Abstract:
This article considers the role of individual employee voice in regulating the ‘zone of acceptance’ within the employment relationship, and examines the extent to which different models of collective voice inhibit or foster the operation of individual voice. It focuses especially on the role of representatives who deal with job-level grievances who operate within contrasted frameworks of collective voice. In one, representation is negotiated with the employer, and in the other, it is based on rights established in employment law. The former is commonly associated with shop stewards and unions, and the latter with employee delegates and works councils. It is argued that whereas in the negotiated model individual and collective voice are substitutes, in the rights-based one they are complements. The article also considers how this may alter under dual-channel representation based on both unions and councils, which is very common in European workplaces. Britain provides an example of the negotiated model, and France of both the rights-based and dual-channel models. These ideas are tested using data from the 2004 British and French workplace employment relations surveys, and confirmed using data from the 1998 surveys.

Abstract:
This study examines the resolution of conflict in nonunion workplaces. Employee participation in workplace decision-making and organizational dispute resolution procedures are two factors hypothesized to influence the outcomes of conflicts in the nonunion workplace. The adoption of high involvement work systems is found to produce an organizational context in which both triggering events for conflict, such as disciplinary and dismissal decisions, and dispute resolution activities, such as grievance filing and appeals, are reduced in frequency. Dispute resolution procedures have mixed impacts. Greater due process protections in dispute resolution procedures in nonunion workplaces are associated with increased grievance filing and higher appeal rates, but do not have significant impacts on the precursors to conflict. This study provides evidence of substantial organizational level variation in nonunion conflict resolution, suggesting the importance of expanding the predominant individual and group level focus of current conflict management research to include more organizational level factors. It also supports the importance to nonunion employee representation of direct participation strategies involving employee involvement in the workplace, in addition to procedures that provide for off-line representation.

Informality at Work: Patterns of Employee Involvement and Participation in a Non-Union Firm
Mick Marchington and Jane Suter

Abstract:
Industrial relations scholars have long been interested in notions of employee involvement, participation, voice and industrial democracy but the terminology is so elastic that the types of practices covered are extremely broad. In this paper, following a brief discussion that categorises employee involvement and participation (EIP) in terms of degree, level and scope, we focus on the relatively dilute formal and informal practices which operate at workplace level in non-union firms. Even though researchers now examine direct – as well as representative – forms of EIP, we argue the focus is still on formal systems. This is understandable both from a methodological and a theoretical angle, but it leaves a gap in our awareness of how EIP functions at workplace level, and in particular the role played by line managers in developing informal communication and consultation in non-union firms. In this paper, we examine formal and informal EIP within a large non-union firm in the UK hospitality sector; a context characterised by intense product and labour market pressures and limited union presence. Our principal conclusion is that informality takes centre-stage in this organisation, driven by managerial and worker preferences for informal EIP in the context of close working relations at the customer interface. Moreover, customer pressures and flexible working patterns make it difficult to sustain formal EIP in the context of a capability framework that puts a primacy on managers using informal approaches. However, it is argued that informal EIP needs to be combined with the formal system to operate effectively.

The Effect of Gender on Awards in Employment Arbitration Cases: The Experience in the Securities Industry
David B. Lipsky, J. Ryan Lamare and Abhishek Gupta

Abstract:
Non-union direct voice has replaced union representative voice as the primary avenue for employee voice in the British private sector. This paper explains this development by providing a framework for examining the relationship between employee voice and workplace outcomes. Voice is associated with lower voluntary turnover, especially in the case of union voice. However, union voice is also associated with greater workplace conflict. We argue changes in voice in Britain are not best understood using a simple union/non-union dichotomy. Union effects on workplace outcomes and the incidence of HRM hinge on whether it co-exists at the workplace with non-union voice in what we term a ‘dual’ system. In the first part of the 21st Century these dual voice systems were performing at least as well as non-union only regimes, suggesting that the rise of non-union regimes is attributable to something other than clear comparative performance advantages over other forms of voice.

Keeping the Commitment Model in the Air during Turbulent Times: Employee Involvement at Delta Airlines
Bruce E. Kaufman

Abstract:
This paper provides a four-decade review and analysis of the commitment (“unitarist”)model of employment relations (EI) at Delta Air Lines and the role played in it by employer-created structures of employee involvement and voice. The company has undergone wrenching changes, including deregulation, 9/11, bankruptcy, mergers, and entrance of numerous low-cost competitors. This paper chronicles the resulting ups and downs in the company’s fortunes and its efforts to maintain a positive win-win relationship with its employees despite the burden of management missteps, tens of thousands of layoffs, repeated pay and benefit cuts, and merger with conflict-embittered Northwest. The fact the company survives today and still has a discernible “spirit of Delta” among employees is not solely or perhaps even principally due to its advanced EI program; on the other hand, without it the company would surely no longer exist.

Does Non-Union Employee Representation Act as a Complement to or Substitute for Union Voice? Evidence from Canada and the United States
Michael Campolieti, Rafael Gomez and Morley Gunderson

Abstract:
This paper examines two central questions related to non-union employee representation (NER) in Canada and the US. First, using Kaufman and Taras’ (2006) four faces NER approach, we ask whether non-union and union forms of voice act as substitutes or complements for employees at the workplace? Second, we ask whether non-union forms of employee representation serve to deflect any latent desire for traditional union voice. We find that NER is negatively related to the presence of unionization at the workplace; it appears to reduce the desire to be unionized; and that this substitution effect proves to be stronger in Canada than in the US.

The Challenges of a Representation Gap: Australian Experiments in Promoting Industrial Citizenship
Troy Sarina

Abstract:
At present, Australia’s industrial landscape is undergoing a radical transformation. On the one hand Australia is experiencing a ‘representation gap’ (Heery, 2009). Trade union coverage has been continually declining since the 1980s and has stagnated to approximately 19% of the Australian workforce (ABS 6310, 2009). However, despite this decline in traditional forms of worker collectivism, the current Australian government remains committed to using collective bargaining at the enterprise level as the primary vehicle for delivering productivity & flexibility gains in order to secure Australia’s international competiveness. The pivotal role that collective bargaining plays in allowing nation states to remain competitive has long been recognised (Collins, 2003). Furthermore, collective bargaining has been used to promote greater ‘industrial citizenship’ whereby workers are informed, consulted and participate in decisions that affect organisational performance and the terms of the employment relationship (Owens, Riley & Murray 2011; Poole et al. 2011). This raises a number of key research questions:

With the emergence of the representation gap, is collective bargaining still an effective way of enhancing industrial citizenship in modern day organisations? and

Does the collective bargaining framework enshrined in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) deliver greater levels of industrial citizenship and if so, how has this been achieved?

This paper argues that the federal government has incorporated a ‘mutual gains’ approach to collective bargaining into federal collective bargaining laws via the inclusion of an obligation for parties to bargain in good faith. The government hopes these types of reforms will deliver greater involvement of all types of workers (union or non-union) in the determination of working conditions and productivity gains. This overhaul of federal workplace laws has been an attempt to more effectively balance the competing goals of enhancing workplace equity and productivity. However, an early assessment of these reforms suggests legislating for a change in bargaining behaviours to secure greater industrial citizenship in the collective bargaining process may be more difficult than the government anticipated.

IRLE PROGRAM NEWS

The Labor Center

New Book

Behind the Kitchen Door, written by Food Labor Research Center director Saru Jayaraman, was released by Cornell University Press this month.

From the publisher:

How do restaurant workers live on some of the lowest wages in America? And how do poor working conditions-discriminatory labor practices, exploitation, and unsanitary kitchens-affect the meals that arrive at our restaurant tables? Food Labor Research Center director Saru Jayaraman sets out to answer these questions by following the lives of restaurant workers in eight American cities. Blending personal narrative and investigative journalism, her book is an exploration of the political, economic, and moral implications of dining out.

Healthcare cost-estimate calculator
The new website for Covered California – California’s health benefits exchange – features the healthcare cost-estimate calculator developed by the Labor Center and the IRLE library. By all indications, the calculator is being widely utilized. The Labor Center has been receiving phone calls and emails with questions and compliments on the important tool.

New ReportsBlack Employment and Unemployment in 2012
By Steven Pitts, February 2013
During 2012, the economy grew by approximately 1.9 million jobs. This growth was fairly steady throughout the year: in eight months, the monthly increase ranged between 112,000 and 196,000. Despite this slow but steady increase in non-farm payroll employment, there were minimal changes in the unemployment rate and employment-population ratio for Black workers during the year. However, white workers fared better than Black workers in 2012.

Which workers are most at risk of reduced work hours under the Affordable Care Act?
By Dave Graham-Squire and Ken Jacobs, February 2013
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers to provide coverage or pay a penalty based on the number of employees working 30 or more hours per week. This data brief looks at which industries have a high percentage of employees working fewer than or slightly above 30 hours, placing them at risk for reduced hours by an employer wishing to avoid penalties.

Labor Education

Labor Summer
The Labor Center is offering an exciting opportunity for UC students to become summer interns with cutting-edge unions and community-based organizations in Northern and possibly Central California. The Labor Summer Internship Program is an innovative PAID internship for UC graduate and undergraduate students, providing opportunities to learn from and work with organizations fighting for justice for California's working people. The internship will run from June 24 through August 16, 2013. Learn more here; the application form will be posted soon. Unions and CBOs interested in hosting an intern can learn more here.
Latino Leadership School

The Labor Center is proud to announce the return of the Latino Leadership School, a workshop for Spanish-speaking emerging leaders from unions and community-based organizations. The program will take place May 17-19, 2013 at St. Dorothy’s Rest Retreat Center near Santa Rosa, CA. Registration and more information to be posted on our website; please check back with us soon at laborcenter.berkeley.edu.

California Public Employee Relations

CPER Online JournalSince the new year began, anxious public sector employers have been calling their law firms because they are not sure how to handle employment situations for retired annuitants. Given the continuing fiscal pressures on public agencies, many are being forced to consider rehiring these retirees – and part of the worry is the fear of running afoul of the newly enacted California Public Employees’ Retirement System rules. In addition, public entities are being asked to defend this hiring practice in the face of civil servants still being furloughed, and in some cases, laid off. In the next issue of CPER Journal online (No. 209, March 2013), attorneys Genevieve Ng and Sabrina Thomas (Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai) discuss the new law and its effects.

Along the same theme of budget savings, attorneys Irma Rodriguez Moisa, Nate Kowalski, and Lisa M. Carrillo (Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo) cover a second increasingly popular option for public sector employers – contracting with another public or private entity to provide public services that are currently performed by its own civil service employees. Advantages include lower training costs, greater flexibility and control over the workload, and the ability to hire experts or specialists in a particular field. On the down side, contracting out means losing a degree of control over the quality of the services being provided and lowering the morale of regular employees. Labor unions often challenge the decision to contract out public services. Before making a decision to contract out, public entities need to review the legal parameters associated with the decision. This article provides that legal framework.

Also in this issue, recent developments in public sector labor relations, decisions of the Public Employment Relations Board, and synopsis of arbitrations.
To subscribe to CPER’s quarterly online journal or see a sample issue, go to http://cper.berkeley.edu.

CPER Pocket Guide Series

NEW EDITION!Pocket Guide to Due Process in Public Employment (3rd edition, 2012) updated by Margot Rosenberg and Kate Hallward, partners, Leonard Carder
An explanation of one of the most significant constitutional guarantees to citizens in general and to the public employees in particular. The guide defines who is protected, what actions are covered, what process is due, remedies for violations, and more.

Recently published...Pocket Guide to Public Sector Mediation in California (1st edition, 2012) by Gerald Fecher, mediator, California State Mediation and Conciliation Service (SMCS)
Mediation continues to be a successful method for resolving labor disputes for public sector employees in California. This pocket guide discusses the various aspects of the mediation process as it applies to public agencies and employees throughout the state. The process differs among public employees depending on the governing statute. The guide outlines those differences and explains how the process typically works.

Pocket Guide to the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act (2nd edition, 2012) by J. Scott Tiedemann, managing partner, Liebert Cassidy Whitmore
In 2007, the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act was signed into law, giving California firefighters many of the same rights as peace officers, and more. Portable, readable, and affordable, the CPER guide provides an overview of the requirements of the act – a clear explanation of who’s covered and the extent of that coverage; how a disciplinary investigation is started; and what to expect concerning interrogation, privacy, discipline, administrative appeals, remedies, and more.

All guides can be ordered at the CPER website, where tables of contents for all guides appear.

Center for Wage and Employment Dynamics

Presentations and Opinion Pieces by CWED Co-Chair Sylvia Allegretto

CWED Co-Chair Sylvia Allegretto addressed the California Assembly Democratic Caucus on Wednesday, February 27th, regarding income inequality and post-great recession economic outcomes. She was interviewed on a variety of topics by KQED Radio’s Forum, Bloomberg Radio, KPFA Berkeley, Capital Public Radio, and KALW radio, and appeared on Al Jazeera America’s television network during February.

Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Library

The Labor Center and Library Collaborate on the National Health Care Calculator
The Labor Center launched a new Web-based service that enables people to estimate their health care costs under the Affordable Care Act’s Health Care Exchange services, which will begin operation in late 2013. This work was supported by the California Endowment, and the library Web team wrote the programming code that runs it. It is hosted on the Labor Center Web at http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/healthpolicy/calculator/. It is also in use for the state of California’s health care exchange, which is known as Covered California (http://www.coveredca.com/resources/calculating-the-cost/). The software is covered by copyright under the Regents of the University of California. The state of Minnesota also has adopted it, and a number of for-profit firms have expressed interest in using the calculator.

Forthcoming PublicationIRLE Librarian Terry Huwe and co-author Julie LeFevre of the Institute for Governmental Studies Library have received notice that the Journal of Web Librarianship has accepted a new article in mid-2013. The Journal is peer-reviewed and is published by Taylor and Francis. The title of the article is “Digital Publishing from the Library: A New Core Competency.” It reports on the experience of the IRLE and IGS Libraries, which both act as Web administrators and digital publishers at their respective institutes.

Labor Project for Working Families

FMLA 20th ANNIVERSARY
One event you didn’t miss... because it’s online...Mom's Rising and the Labor Project’s FMLA 20th Anniversary Blog Carnival of Labor. February 5 marked 20 years since unions helped pass the Family Medical Leave Act. From the beginning, unions played a key role in the coalition that pushed through the Act. Today, unions help enforce it, educate member about it, and work hard to bargain for terms that give its benefits to the greatest number of people. Read what union presidents and leaders posted about the lasting impact of this important legislation. http://bit.ly/Xep2Zc

Center for Latino Policy Research
March 7, 2013
Shorb House Conference Room, 2547 Channing Way
4:pm-5:30pm
“Undocumented, Unafraid, and Unapologetic: Dream Activism and the Queering of Democratic Citizenship”, Cristina Beltrán, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University

March 11, 2013
“’The General Custom in this Country’: Immigrant Homeownership, Economic Assimilation and Return Migration during the Age of Mass Migration to the United States”, Richard Sutch, UC Riverside and UC Berkeley